Reformulating Diabetes Drug to Treat Degenerative Eye Diseases with Richard Garr Curative Biotechnology TRANSCRIPT
Download PDFJul 6, 2026
Richard Garr, CEO and General Counsel of Curative Biotechnology, discusses the company's work in repurposing the diabetes drug metformin into an eye drop for degenerative eye diseases. The goal of the therapy is retinal preservation, aiming to slow or stop disease progression by acting at the cellular level in the back of the eye to protect it from damage, offering a non-invasive alternative to current treatments. Using a repurposed drug allows the company to build on well-documented safety data and reduces the size, cost and duration of clinical trials.
Richard explains, "We are currently focused on repurposing the drug metformin, which is an FDA-approved drug that diabetics take. And as it turns out, we have reformulated it into an eye drop. This is licensed from the National Eye Institute. We have worldwide exclusive rights. The first patent in that estate was allowed about two months ago in Canada. We would expect it to be issued this summer. It's being prosecuted around the world."
"We believe that it is a platform drug and that we'll be able to treat a wide range of degenerative eye diseases. It's repurposed because it is an approved FDA drug. It's been taken for decades orally by literally tens of millions of patients, mostly with type two diabetes. And really, the importance of that is that we know it's a safe systemically. So, everything you could want to know about the metformin systemically is known. What we have to show in our clinical trials is that it's safe in the eye and that it does, in fact, do what we suspect it does to treat degenerative eye disease."
#CurativeBiotech #Ophthalmology #Retina #Neuroprotection #DryAMD #EyeCare #DrugRepurposing #Metformin #HealthcareInnovation #ClinicalResearch #CurativeBiotech
